KUCHING: Despite having to end his 30-year-old business and sell his property to settle debts, businessman Yap Boon Kian still forks out RM100,000 for Kuching Life Care Society to purchase medical beds for East Malaysia’s first hospice and palliative care centre..

Yap, a Malaccan with an ice-cream business in Johor Bahru, makes his third contribution to Kuching Life Care Society to start the first hospice centre in East Malaysia.

Despite not having any ties with the Kuching community, Yap has made two earlier contributions to help the society acquire two ambulance vans during the last eight years.

His business took a plunge during the Covid-19 pandemic, and he ended up selling his property to pay the debts.

But Yap takes it easy that he is debt-free now and still has some money for retirement.

After visiting the hospice and palliative care building which has not yet started operation, Yap decided to donate for a third time last December.

Yap has been poor since young. He quit school to work at the age of 15.

From the various kind of jobs he had taken, he learned about the ice-cream business from his employer.

He later relocated to Johor Bahru and started an ice-cream business with his brothers in 1992.

For 30 years, he ran the ice-cream business in Johor Bahru.

From an honorary advisor to Kuching Life Care Society, Yap came to know that some terminally-ill patients passed on with regret for not being able to return home.

He felt for them and donated an ambulance van in 2016 on a mortgage plan.

Yap and his family subsequently visited Kuching and Sibu, and discovered how important an ambulance van was for terminally-ill patients.

He then received support from his family to make a second contribution for another ambulance van in 2019.

He pledged to donate a third van, but the plan was disrupted by the pandemic.

He did not contribute a third ambulance but medical beds.

“I was once poor and I want to help the needy while I still can.”